Tomorrow's War, Our groups first play through.

Our group wanted to start the new year right. We got together on 1/1 and played our first game of Tomorrow's War published by Ambush Alley Games and Osprey. We were very familiar with the rules and quite confident that we would breeze through the first game. We have played Ambush Alley, Force on Force and Ambush Valley many times. Also one of our group is Jim Wonnacott and he helped author the Force on Force supplement, Cold War Gone Hot. 

 We played the 1^st scenario in the rule book and it is called Putting it all together:Lost and Found. It is basically a downed pilot is in the center of the table. The Marines (Jim and myself) had to rescue the pilot. We got victory points for making contact and getting the pilot off the board as quickly as possible. The Glories (Ted and Gene) received victory points for wounding, killing or capturing Marines. They were also needed to keep the pilot on the board. The only adjustment to the original scenario is that it was written with 15mm, we used 28mm. We adjusted the time limit from eight turns to ten turns.

 

The miniatures that we used were painted by Ted Bender. They are Wargames Factory produced the troops that represented the Glories . A mix Game Workshop and Leading Edge represented the Marines. As a side note Ted is a prolific and accomplished painter. At the end of the post I included some photos of some of his miniatures. When you go to his house , one never quite knows what kind of project he is painting up next.

Jim and I decided that we had three squads. One would be the grab team and the other two would give fire support. We have learned through playing Force on Force, use over-watch, it makes a big difference as you will see

The first , second and third turn we win initiative. The support squads move into cover on the woods edge and behind a fence. And the other squad makes it's way to the downed pilot. 

 

Turn 4

On turn three we win initiative and our support teams go into over-watch. The grab squad moves out into the middle of the river. A Glory squad attempts to ambush and they failed their roll. I guess in the heat of battle safeties are a nuisance. I win reaction and roll nine d8. I get 2-8s, 2-7s,1-6 and 2-5s. Ted does not block any shots, one squad down. The Glories wanted to just see if they could slow the snatch squad down. They planned on letting go with all squads 

Turn 5

We win initiative. Ted's second squad attacks the Marine squad in the building in the middle of the table. Again they hoping for the Marine squad to be pinned. Again Two squads are on over-watch and I beat Ted on the reaction roll: Ted beats Jim. So I fire, Ted fires and Jim fires. My dice are smoking hot today. All of his troops in that Ted's squad fall to my fire except the medic. He is hoping that the medic survives and can help revive this squad. And on the next turn move to the squad that was squished the previous turn and help revive them. Ted's lone figure fires at Jim without any harm to Jim's squad. Jim returns fire and that is the end of the medic. So unless one of Gene's men tries to move over and help revive them, those two squads are no longer a factor in the game. Jim also rolled a one on his reaction roll for this turn. He pulled watch your step one trooper is down, he ends up KIA and one Marine has a heavy wound.

Sorry it is out of focus, but I wanted to show the aftermath.

Turn 5

We no longer have initiative

I move up, because I have no more viable targets. I get hit pretty hard. Three Marines go down, but I have only one KIA the other two pop right back up. It must have been merely a flesh wound. They must have much, much worse before. Jim exchanges fire with another squad of Glories. The snatch squad moves out into the middle of the the bridge over the river. Jim also rolled a one for his one of his reaction rolls and received a fog of war card.

Turn 6

We do not have initiative.

The snatch squad moves and is targeted. Jim wins the reaction roll and moves instead of firing. The move takes him out of line of site of one squad. So he only takes fire from one squad and in the exchange he gets a Marine with a heavy wound. He moves the snatch squad and it is out of line of site. The other squad rolls another one for the reaction roll. Another fog of war card

His man is unaffected by the fog of war card.  I then move my squad and I win the reaction roll also. I too move my squad out of line of site instead of firing. 

 

Turn 7

Marines move off the board and points are totaled. The Marines win.

Tomorrow's War is another fine example of a great game published by Ambush Alley Games. We played this game to the conclusion in about 90 minutes, though we are very familiar with Ambush Alley Games. 

A closeup of the Wargames Factory miniatures.  I think they are really nice

 Some of Ted's random miniatures and projects.

 

My 1st Gaming Convention: Gen Con XIV

First an apology, I have not been very good at updating this blog. I acquired a new job and not as much free time, plus summer maintenance on our home sucked up most of my free time. Now that the snow is flying, I have more time

Secondly a shameless plug, for my best friend's business venture. We met in my wife's aunt's second grade class. Actually we had met before that. We were born three days apart and we were in the hospital nursery together. So I have literally known him all my life. Well anyway he has opened a hobby store in Ypsilanti Michigan. It is called called The Model Cave, address is

	103 W Michigan Ave, Ypsilanti, MI 48197
Hours	Wed - Sat: 12:00 pm - 8:00 pm Sun: 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Description	Your single stop model building shop

Email	modelcave@gmail.com
Phone	734.316.2281

On Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/ModelCave/252848264740575

He carries kits, a full line of Vallejo, Humbrol, Tamaiya , Testors enamels for automobiles, airbrushes inks, powders and all the tools. He does not have a web presence yet. I believe that will happen after the holidays. So if you live in Southeast Michigan or just passing through check out a nice model store.

I was cleaning the basement and this fell out of a file. 

That sure brought back a lot of memories. There were four of us from our group that decided to go to GenCon. We drove about 5 hours in a huge van pulling a 18 foot trailer, caravan for you English chaps. I watch Top Gear. I put my home stereo speakers in the van. These speakers were huge, They had a 16 inch woofers, 10 mid-ranges and two 2 inch tweeters. They were great speakers and I still wished that I had not sold them. We listened to some really loud music. The one song I remember the most was Stroke Me, Stroke Me by Billy Squire.

We drive around Chicago and set up camp. Unhook the trailer, get it level. We open the awning and set up the picnic table parallel to the trailer ( this is very important to the story). Evening sets in and starts to rain. I mean really rain, all of a sudden, we all here this big thunk and several small thunks. This camp site has a small incline and with the amount of rain we had, the chocks on the wheels start to shift. The trailer starts to roll down hill. Well you have seen four guys trying to get out of a small trailer door. It was a sight. The real scarey part was that the van was about 10 feet in front of the the trailer, parked perpendicular to the trailer . I mentioned the picnic table before. The trailer as it was shifting and rolling down the hill. It had shifted a bit to the right. The frame of the trailer landed on the seat of the picnic table and the picnic table stopped the trailers forward motion. That was a tense few seconds.

We then go to GenCon the next day. We had preregistered, so we were in no hurry to get there. We wait in line get pay our entry fee a.. We then go to pick-up our chits for the games we preregistered for. Only to find out that all the games we had been preregistered had all been canceled. Who ever was working that area said you can choose any of these games that were left. What that amounted to was nothing. If memory serves me correctly there were maybe ten games were available and we really did not want to play any them. We were not happy campers. I believe that if we had not traveled so far, we would have demanded a refund and left. As a side note many years later our gaming group had expanded. We were heavy into Harpoon at the time. We find out that Larry Bond is putting on a Harpoon game at GenCon. I tell them the a fore mentioned story and caution them. They do not pay attention to my story. Five of my friends FedEx next day to register the Harpoon game, so they are sure to get a space. And this was when FedEx was brand new, so it was novel and expensive. They go to GenCon only to find out that Larry Bond was a no show and the game had been canceled.

Back to my story. This was the first convention that we had been to and we were not aware of pick-up games, thank God for them. We had a great time after that. I played my 1^st game of micro-armor there and have been hooked since.

I remember one game, it is on page 31. Modern Micro Armor 2013. It was a huge game with helo-troops and paratroopers. I did not play in it, but I watched a bit and the fellows that were playing it were having a good time. I scanned a few pages, I am not going to scan them all, the guide is 62 pages long. So here is a sampling of some of the games that were offered.

Mike 

Battle of Abu Agelia using Cold War Commander

     I had the pleasure of playing a game of Cold War Commander run by Dan Joyce at Drums at the Rapids gaming convention.  This game is a scenario based on the Battle of Abu-Agelia.  As in an earlier post, I stated we played a game of CY6 Jet Age.  Who won the CY6 game, directly affected what support the opposing sides would get.  The Israelis won the CY6 game and received three Mysteres as ground support.  If the Egyptians had won the CY6 game, they would have received a battery of  artillery.  I want to apologize for the AAR, I had never played the CWC before and have since bought the rule book.
     The previous two photos, show the disposition of our glorious Egyptian forces. (Sorry for the bias)  The infantry were dug in and we dispersed them in two lines.  There were two units of T-55s on the board and a unit of T-62s came on board on the second turn.  We had to contend with Israeli Centurions.  Their range was almost   twice the range of the Egyptian tanks.  Our answer was to have the hills mask the tanks.  We could then pop up on the hill when the range was not so disadvantageous for the T-55s and T-62s.    The next photo shows the Israeli disposition.  The infantry that is nearest is the paratroopers.

The next photo shows the 1st Mystere attack, not very effective and this will be a theme.

The second Mystere attack again,  it ends up in the dust.  This poor showing can be attributed from the FAO being too far away from the target.

The previous photo shows the Israeli that is farthest away from the camera.  The CO blundered the command and had a full movement away from the Egyptians. This really slowed his advance.The next photo shows the T-62s advancing in the center.

The T-55s pop up on the hill to slow down the advance.  They take out two Ishermans and suppress one Centurion.

The Centurions trade shots with the T-55s.

The T-55s did not fair too well.  In the next photo, you can see  the one  T-55 left in the unit.  Oh well, as my fraternal Soviet brothers say.  There are more T-55s where that came from.  In all seriousness, I was trading time for T-55s and I believe it was a fair exchange.

The T-62s getting into position to pop up  and fire.

Just after the next photo, the Israeli paratroopers tried to assaulted the dug in militia.  It was not a pretty sight.  Note to self, never try to assault a dug in position without the foe being suppressed.  Sorry, I did not get a photo of that.

The T-62s are taking out Centurions.  It is getting down to the nitty gritty.  The Egyptian breaking point is twelve and the Israeli breaking point is nine.  The Israelis  hit their breaking point and they are successful in not breaking.

The next turn, again the T-62s and Centurions trade shots.  The Egyptians reach their break point and the Israelis are now two units over their break point.  The Isrealis break and the Egyptians  do not break.  The Egyptians hold the battlefield and win the game.  It was a fun game and I really enjoyed the rule set.  I went out two days later and ordered it. 

Mike